Hiya friends vintysmile. As you may have seen, things have not been great here in Australia. Our bushfires have slaughtered millions of wildlife. Countless families have lost their homes, and some unfortunately did not make it at all. The air here has also been awful on many days, including in the cities where most of us work at our day jobs. We have been advised to put on masks when we are out and about. The smoke is at times so thick it feels like we are in Silent Hill. Well, time to take action. This week, all profits made from my portfolio (from Unhack to Clea) will be donated to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery: https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-donate To mark the occasion, please hop onto Clea's main menu screen to download this "Wish for Rain" costume:
From early December to this day, we have seen only small amounts of rain. Instead, we have regular strong winds, which as you can imagine, is no help to say the least when it comes to fires. Fortunately, we have some heavy rains forecasted for next week. Everyone now wishes this will indeed come true. Of course, it is probably more direct to just donate, so please feel free to do that. To those who are interested in my portfolio, you can find it here: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2684/InvertMouse_Bundle/ Thank you cleanorm!

Hi everyone sasa. Clea has just been released on Steam! No pre-scripted scaresyour skills alone determine Clea's fate as she escapes from the Whitlock Mansion. https://store.steampowered.com/app/981020/Clea/ With multiple endings, secret chapters, as well as unlockable costumes and gallery images, I hope you will enjoy your time with Clea. Perhaps you might challenge and conquer Chaos Mode, which unlocks after your first run neonya?
Please remember to pick up that launch week costume via the in-game menu, by the way! Feel free to check out the demo version, which contains 1 of the 2 bonus dresses vintydelusional. Also, in case you missed it, you can rep The Last Birdling in-game with this Tayo mod!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1792024943 Thank you so much for your support yoyo.

Hi friends! Hope you are enjoying the Steam summer sale. I am about to burn my wallet when I get home from work tonight yoyo. Hey, I would like to take this chance to introduce you to Clea, my upcoming 2D survival horror with no jump scares: https://store.steampowered.com/app/981020/Clea/ Clea will be released on July 10th! Sometime next week, I will drop a Tayo color alt costume mod for the game, too. I very much hope you can consider wishlisting Clea, then show your boy some support on release day. Thank you so much bibi!

[img=https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32534187/30077a12ea62784972cd780b0fcfa6d466c99bde.jpg][/img] Hi everyone ːvintyprettyː! Without Within 3 comes out in three days, and to prep for that, we have a sale going on: [img=https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32534187/e5dcb54243b2ececd800014930b3e05d84e14c27.jpg][/img] Also, we have a quick Q&A to address some WOWI 3 related items: And, of course, here is Without Within 3's store page: Thank you for your support through the past five years! Hope to see you in Vinty's third (mis)adventure this Friday ːexceliaː.

I received a message today saying there is a parcel in my PO box, so I dropped by the post office and found this. Massive thank you to Xolf and Marcianek11IX for the surprise gift ːbibiː! Recently, I have also been receiving messages from players who have shared their personal struggles with me. They say thank you for the motivation, though really, their stories have inspired me in return. I am glad Bimonia and Tayo's stories have connected with you ːyoyoː. By the way, one full year has passed since my dad left this world. To those who were here at the time, thank you for your well wishes from back then. We are all in this together. Without Within 3 is in production, and I already know Vinty's third adventure will be the best one in the series yet. Then after that? Hey, something is coming in 2018 my friends ːlulululuː.

I received a message today saying there is a parcel in my PO box, so I dropped by the post office and found this. Massive thank you to Xolf and Marcianek11IX for the surprise gift :bibi:! Recently, I have also been receiving messages from players who have shared their personal struggles with me. They say thank you for the motivation, though really, their stories have inspired me in return. I am glad Bimonia and Tayo's stories have connected with you :yoyo:. By the way, one full year has passed since my dad left this world. To those who were here at the time, thank you for your well wishes from back then. We are all in this together. Without Within 3 is in production, and I already know Vinty's third adventure will be the best one in the series yet. Then after that? Hey, something is coming in 2018 my friends :lulululu:.

Hey everyone, The Last Birdling is out :bibi:! [img=http://i.imgur.com/5re4aCF.jpg][/img] http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ [img=http://i.imgur.com/zpLUMKJ.jpg][/img] Bimonia is one of the last Birdlings alive on this earth. The Birdlings see humans as sworn enemies, and Bimonia has been taught to kill on sight. One day, Bimonia meets Tayo, a human child hunting in the forest. Bimonia fails to kill Tayo, and they instead become friends. Mother will be furious if she finds out, or worse, this relationship may cause tension between the two species to erupt. The Last Birdling explores Bimonia and Tayos fight for their friendship as the world threatens to tear them apart. [img=http://i.imgur.com/GTzRsBh.jpg][/img] Follow Bimonia and Tayos journeys from alternating perspectives. With 21 decisions and 5 different endings, The Last Birdling is a culmination of all the lessons I have learned since 2012. There is a progress tracker available, which means players can unlock all the conclusions without any guides. I have also added a glossary feature, so those who wish to dive deeper can immerse themselves in the lore :lulululu:. [img=http://i.imgur.com/V4woPnW.jpg][/img] [img=http://i.imgur.com/dLEMxFR.jpg][/img] I hope you can give The Last Birdling a look and spread the word. As always, a review afterward would be much appreciated, since it will help other gamers out :airin:. [img=http://i.imgur.com/MYAkCHC.jpg][/img] Thank you for the last five years of support :yoyo:!

Hey everyone, The Last Birdling is out ːbibiː! [img=http://i.imgur.com/5re4aCF.jpg][/img] http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ [img=http://i.imgur.com/zpLUMKJ.jpg][/img] Bimonia is one of the last Birdlings alive on this earth. The Birdlings see humans as sworn enemies, and Bimonia has been taught to kill on sight. One day, Bimonia meets Tayo, a human child hunting in the forest. Bimonia fails to kill Tayo, and they instead become friends. Mother will be furious if she finds out, or worse, this relationship may cause tension between the two species to erupt. The Last Birdling explores Bimonia and Tayo’s fight for their friendship as the world threatens to tear them apart. [img=http://i.imgur.com/GTzRsBh.jpg][/img] Follow Bimonia and Tayo’s journeys from alternating perspectives. With 21 decisions and 5 different endings, The Last Birdling is a culmination of all the lessons I have learned since 2012. There is a progress tracker available, which means players can unlock all the conclusions without any guides. I have also added a glossary feature, so those who wish to dive deeper can immerse themselves in the lore ːlulululuː. [img=http://i.imgur.com/V4woPnW.jpg][/img] [img=http://i.imgur.com/dLEMxFR.jpg][/img] I hope you can give The Last Birdling a look and spread the word. As always, a review afterward would be much appreciated, since it will help other gamers out ːairinː. [img=http://i.imgur.com/MYAkCHC.jpg][/img] Thank you for the last five years of support ːyoyoː!

Hi everyone ːbibiː. Just one week to go until The Last Birdling launches on Steam. I hope to have your support there and then! The Last Birdling marks my fifth year not in game development, but at least under the name InvertMouse. I have released a good 5 to 6 titles on Steam now, and they have all taught me valuable lessons.
First, there was Unhack 1, which has many immature traits in retrospect. I must continue to accept critique even when it is for older titles that no longer reflect my skill level.
Then there is Bermuda, which I admit is a failure. I made plenty of management mistakes, and the results are out there for the world to see. Failure is not as scary once you have suffered through it. Please let me stress all the errors are on me, not anyone else on the team.
Next, we have Without Within 1 and 2. Initially, the first game received negative reviews from people who hated anime and/or visual novels. As the days went by, players who fell in love with Vinty have defended these titles. Vinty is kind, but she can also be a jerk. She is simply real.
There was Cursed Sight, featuring a protagonist who had caused some divided opinions. If I were to rewrite this story, I know I can do a much better job.
Then most recently came Unhack 2. This project was once a disaster due to my lack of research on AI. After months of study and rewrites, this project had evolved into my personal favorite. I hope more people may try out this title, because its themes have left me with plenty to think about.
As we count down toward The Last Birdling’s release, my portfolio of games on Steam will be on discount for a week. If there are any titles you have missed, I hope you will give them a chance. http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2684/InvertMouse_Bundle/ As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you everyone. See you next week ːyoyoː!

Hi everyone :bibi:. Just one week to go until The Last Birdling launches on Steam. I hope to have your support there and then! The Last Birdling marks my fifth year not in game development, but at least under the name InvertMouse. I have released a good 5 to 6 titles on Steam now, and they have all taught me valuable lessons.
First, there was Unhack 1, which has many immature traits in retrospect. I must continue to accept critique even when it is for older titles that no longer reflect my skill level.
Then there is Bermuda, which I admit is a failure. I made plenty of management mistakes, and the results are out there for the world to see. Failure is not as scary once you have suffered through it. Please let me stress all the errors are on me, not anyone else on the team.
Next, we have Without Within 1 and 2. Initially, the first game received negative reviews from people who hated anime and/or visual novels. As the days went by, players who fell in love with Vinty have defended these titles. Vinty is kind, but she can also be a jerk. She is simply real.
There was Cursed Sight, featuring a protagonist who had caused some divided opinions. If I were to rewrite this story, I know I can do a much better job.
Then most recently came Unhack 2. This project was once a disaster due to my lack of research on AI. After months of study and rewrites, this project had evolved into my personal favorite. I hope more people may try out this title, because its themes have left me with plenty to think about.
As we count down toward The Last Birdlings release, my portfolio of games on Steam will be on discount for a week. If there are any titles you have missed, I hope you will give them a chance. http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2684/InvertMouse_Bundle/ As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you everyone. See you next week :yoyo:!

Hey everyone ːlulululuː! I have uploaded The Last Birdling’s soundtrack onto Steam. This soundtrack will be released on September 1st alongside the core game. There are 19 tracks in total, but since some of their names may contain spoilers, let’s leave it at that for now.
The Last Birdling’s composer is Efe Tozan. Efe and I have worked together since Cursed Sight, and he is also the composer for Without Within 1 and Without Within 2. Every time we catch up for a new project, I can tell Efe has improved. This guy is passionate about music, and The Last Birdling is easily his best performance yet. Today, I would like to talk about how these tracks were put together.
We often begin with the character themes. First, I will send my character profile documents over to Efe, and along with that, I also suggest what type of feeling we should convey with each track. A picture tells a thousand words, and you know, a track also tells a thousand words, so the best way to communicate mood is via an example. Once I find a list of suitable tracks that fit our criteria, I will pass those YouTube links over to Efe.
At this stage, we have our tracks list, mood references along with relevant documents such as character profiles and early drafts. With these materials in place, we let the expert do his thing. Once Efe submits his samples, we improvise from there. Sometimes, it turns out a track is a poor fit for situation A, but it matches situation B perfectly. In that case, we simply swap the filenames around.
We must also take context into account. Some tracks sound great as standalones, but they have beats that distract players in a game context. In those instances, we would balance the volume, change instruments, whatever it takes. Also, no track exists alone in a game. With stories, we have the “emotional rollercoaster” cliché. The same concept applies to our music, so we must ensure these tracks cover a broad range of emotions.
Once the soundtrack is complete, I do my best to serve as a “second ear”. When you are close to a piece of work, even obvious mistakes will become hidden. I promise you, I have read through The Last Birdling many, many times. Despite this, the first test reader still managed to spot three spelling errors. The closer you are, the more blind you become. And music is the same way. We can have a stunning five-minute track, but if we catch a single glitch in the audio, our experience is ruined. Whenever the track plays in-game, your ears will anticipate that dreaded pop. When you listen to the same track over and over, these flaws can become even harder to spot. It is my responsibility to listen for those unwanted spikes.
The last point is volume balance. When one track sounds louder or softer than the rest, that too can lead to a poor experience. As someone with no musical talent, I used to just compare the waveforms, but I soon learned that would not suffice. You must listen to each track with your ears to truly know. Whenever Efe completes a soundtrack, I would put it on my phone and listen to it on loop for several days. On top of this, we also listen to the tracks on different devices, since that too can have an effect. To finish up, with kind permission from Efe, here is The Last Birdling’s main theme: https://youtu.be/XgdjGFUt4mM You will find some of these beats being repeated throughout other tracks in the game. This is one of the techniques we use to tie the soundtrack into a coherent package. Humans have a natural love for patterns, and when you catch a certain beat being replayed with a different instrument? We all know a thing or two about those goose bumps. As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Just two weeks to go my friends. Thank you ːbibiː!

Hey everyone :lulululu:! I have uploaded The Last Birdlings soundtrack onto Steam. This soundtrack will be released on September 1st alongside the core game. There are 19 tracks in total, but since some of their names may contain spoilers, lets leave it at that for now.
The Last Birdlings composer is Efe Tozan. Efe and I have worked together since Cursed Sight, and he is also the composer for Without Within 1 and Without Within 2. Every time we catch up for a new project, I can tell Efe has improved. This guy is passionate about music, and The Last Birdling is easily his best performance yet. Today, I would like to talk about how these tracks were put together.
We often begin with the character themes. First, I will send my character profile documents over to Efe, and along with that, I also suggest what type of feeling we should convey with each track. A picture tells a thousand words, and you know, a track also tells a thousand words, so the best way to communicate mood is via an example. Once I find a list of suitable tracks that fit our criteria, I will pass those YouTube links over to Efe.
At this stage, we have our tracks list, mood references along with relevant documents such as character profiles and early drafts. With these materials in place, we let the expert do his thing. Once Efe submits his samples, we improvise from there. Sometimes, it turns out a track is a poor fit for situation A, but it matches situation B perfectly. In that case, we simply swap the filenames around.
We must also take context into account. Some tracks sound great as standalones, but they have beats that distract players in a game context. In those instances, we would balance the volume, change instruments, whatever it takes. Also, no track exists alone in a game. With stories, we have the emotional rollercoaster clich. The same concept applies to our music, so we must ensure these tracks cover a broad range of emotions.
Once the soundtrack is complete, I do my best to serve as a second ear. When you are close to a piece of work, even obvious mistakes will become hidden. I promise you, I have read through The Last Birdling many, many times. Despite this, the first test reader still managed to spot three spelling errors. The closer you are, the more blind you become. And music is the same way. We can have a stunning five-minute track, but if we catch a single glitch in the audio, our experience is ruined. Whenever the track plays in-game, your ears will anticipate that dreaded pop. When you listen to the same track over and over, these flaws can become even harder to spot. It is my responsibility to listen for those unwanted spikes.
The last point is volume balance. When one track sounds louder or softer than the rest, that too can lead to a poor experience. As someone with no musical talent, I used to just compare the waveforms, but I soon learned that would not suffice. You must listen to each track with your ears to truly know. Whenever Efe completes a soundtrack, I would put it on my phone and listen to it on loop for several days. On top of this, we also listen to the tracks on different devices, since that too can have an effect. To finish up, with kind permission from Efe, here is The Last Birdlings main theme: https://youtu.be/XgdjGFUt4mM You will find some of these beats being repeated throughout other tracks in the game. This is one of the techniques we use to tie the soundtrack into a coherent package. Humans have a natural love for patterns, and when you catch a certain beat being replayed with a different instrument? We all know a thing or two about those goose bumps. As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Just two weeks to go my friends. Thank you :bibi:!

Tooaya and I had worked together on Cursed Sight, and here we are this time on The Last Birdling. From day one, Tooaya promised to provide weekly updates, and she had remained consistent from start to finish. While production skills are no doubt important, reliability is a trait that is often overlooked.
The Last Birdling had been in production since around 2015. The first thing I sent Tooaya were character profiles along with an early draft of the script. Most important, of course, is the art assets list. I provided as many references and roughs as possible, then once everything was settled, the journey began.
No illustration exists alone in a visual novel, and Tooaya often helps me out in this regard. Lets say we have two consecutive CGs with similar compositions. In that case, Tooaya would deviate from my rough and adjust the camera angle to create variety.
On my end, all I can provide is a second set of eyes. Since I am no art expert, I can only try my hardest to keep up. For practice, I often sketch roughs that never see the light of day. I want to develop a sense for eye angles, neck lengths, body proportions, that sort of thing. Then again, with Tooaya, I just let the expert do her thing.
Characters often change hairstyles and clothes throughout a story. To avoid inconsistencies, everyone team member must be on the same page, which is why we communicate on a weekly basis. It is yet another vital skill that cannot be taken for granted.
As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you :airin:!

Tooaya and I had worked together on Cursed Sight, and here we are this time on The Last Birdling. From day one, Tooaya promised to provide weekly updates, and she had remained consistent from start to finish. While production skills are no doubt important, reliability is a trait that is often overlooked.
The Last Birdling had been in production since around 2015. The first thing I sent Tooaya were character profiles along with an early draft of the script. Most important, of course, is the art assets list. I provided as many references and roughs as possible, then once everything was settled, the journey began.
No illustration exists alone in a visual novel, and Tooaya often helps me out in this regard. Let’s say we have two consecutive CGs with similar compositions. In that case, Tooaya would deviate from my rough and adjust the camera angle to create variety.
On my end, all I can provide is a second set of eyes. Since I am no art expert, I can only try my hardest to keep up. For practice, I often sketch roughs that never see the light of day. I want to develop a sense for eye angles, neck lengths, body proportions, that sort of thing. Then again, with Tooaya, I just let the expert do her thing.
Characters often change hairstyles and clothes throughout a story. To avoid inconsistencies, everyone team member must be on the same page, which is why we communicate on a weekly basis. It is yet another vital skill that cannot be taken for granted.
As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you ːairinː!

Many years ago, I picked up Mass Effect 1 when it was on sale for about ten bucks. I played through the game and thought yeah, it was okay, then a week later, I found myself on a second playthrough. During this new run, I fell in love with the franchise, and it took me a while to figure out why. It is that damn codex. There are so many entries to read, and honestly, I am not even smart enough to know if the lore is any good, or whether the science is accurate. All I know is, when I have so much data to soak in, eventually, I start to believe that world is real. Once you begin to think fiction is reality, the love will naturally follow.
Unhack 2 took around three years to complete, and right until the final five to six months, the script was an absolute disaster. With Unhack 1, I got away with my lack of AI research. In Unhack 2, now that the story is our focus, I am forced to confront my fatal flaw. Once there is an element of realism involved, I start to fall apart.
Before I can even rewrite the script, I must first set up the Unhack universe properly. After spending several months with AI related books, documentaries and movies, I locked myself in a library and pumped out 10,000 words of lore in a day. Unhack 2 unfortunately still sold below expectations due to my poor marketing skills, but thanks to that research, I truly believe that is my best project yet. The thing is, that lore is for my eyes only, so those articles will never see the light of day. With The Last Birdling, I did not want to repeat that mistake. I love reading lore even though they are info dumps by traditional standards, and I wish to offer players that same experience. This is why I have added a glossary feature into The Last Birdling.
Sure, The Last Birdling is mostly fantasy. That said, I learned something from Unhack 2. When you obsess over every detail, the world feels more and more alive. Writers know about the over-research syndrome, but I have the opposite issue. In this case, I had been blinded by my knowledge of these common pitfalls. Now that I have learned my lesson, I will carry it with me into my grave.
In The Last Birdling, there will be 20 lore entries for players to enjoy. Throughout the story, you will see these glossary buttons appear from time to time. Hit that switch and you will be taken to a relevant article that sheds more light on the topic in question. Though this is my attempt to promote The Last Birdling, I admit this is only the start. From next year onward, I am going to become even more obsessed with my projects. I must thirst for more details. In Doom 4, I obsessed over every word in those codex entries. I will die a nerd, and I want to share that love with all of you. As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you!

Many years ago, I picked up Mass Effect 1 when it was on sale for about ten bucks. I played through the game and thought yeah, it was okay, then a week later, I found myself on a second playthrough. During this new run, I fell in love with the franchise, and it took me a while to figure out why. It is that damn codex. There are so many entries to read, and honestly, I am not even smart enough to know if the lore is any good, or whether the science is accurate. All I know is, when I have so much data to soak in, eventually, I start to believe that world is real. Once you begin to think fiction is reality, the love will naturally follow.
Unhack 2 took around three years to complete, and right until the final five to six months, the script was an absolute disaster. With Unhack 1, I got away with my lack of AI research. In Unhack 2, now that the story is our focus, I am forced to confront my fatal flaw. Once there is an element of realism involved, I start to fall apart.
Before I can even rewrite the script, I must first set up the Unhack universe properly. After spending several months with AI related books, documentaries and movies, I locked myself in a library and pumped out 10,000 words of lore in a day. Unhack 2 unfortunately still sold below expectations due to my poor marketing skills, but thanks to that research, I truly believe that is my best project yet. The thing is, that lore is for my eyes only, so those articles will never see the light of day. With The Last Birdling, I did not want to repeat that mistake. I love reading lore even though they are info dumps by traditional standards, and I wish to offer players that same experience. This is why I have added a glossary feature into The Last Birdling.
Sure, The Last Birdling is mostly fantasy. That said, I learned something from Unhack 2. When you obsess over every detail, the world feels more and more alive. Writers know about the over-research syndrome, but I have the opposite issue. In this case, I had been blinded by my knowledge of these common pitfalls. Now that I have learned my lesson, I will carry it with me into my grave.
In The Last Birdling, there will be 20 lore entries for players to enjoy. Throughout the story, you will see these glossary buttons appear from time to time. Hit that switch and you will be taken to a relevant article that sheds more light on the topic in question. Though this is my attempt to promote The Last Birdling, I admit this is only the start. From next year onward, I am going to become even more obsessed with my projects. I must thirst for more details. In Doom 4, I obsessed over every word in those codex entries. I will die a nerd, and I want to share that love with all of you. As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you!

Backgrounds are sometimes overlooked when we play visual novels. I for one am guilty of this, so today I would like to, well, I guess you can say repent. When you have multiple illustrators, there is always a chance your art styles will clash. The easiest solution, of course, would be to feature a single artist in your project. In reality, however, other concerns come into play. Schedules, motivation, workload—there are many factors to juggle. In The Last Birdling, I have opted for a relatively safe route. That is, to feature different artists for the backgrounds and characters. Since these elements are quite separate, it makes clashes less likely. Tooaya is The Last Birdling’s artist, while Juliestorybored is our background illustrator. As the assets trickled in, we first put together a test to make sure the elements fit:
Lighting changes based on the time of day, so we must have all our bases covered:


Once the test is complete, we can proceed with production:

I prefer not to use language like “my team” or “my artist”. Once someone joins the team, we are in this together. When it was time to design Tayo’s village, Julia took the lead and did a great job:
The Last Birdling has been in production for two years. During that time, I often study other visual novels for inspiration. The Starcraft VN caught my interest back when it first released. I was particularly awestruck by the city nightscape that animated into place:
My previous project, Cursed Sight, featured backgrounds painted by the talented Tooaya. However, none of them animated during the game:


As I learn from other creators, I apply those lessons into future projects. In The Last Birdling, I have coded CGs and backgrounds that contain parallax animations, which work especially well for long distance shots:
Sometimes I am tempted to say my ideas are my own. If I ever claim that in the future, you can call me out for being a liar. I am a fan as much as anyone, so I will always be a student first. Thank you for reading ːyoyoː!

Backgrounds are sometimes overlooked when we play visual novels. I for one am guilty of this, so today I would like to, well, I guess you can say repent. When you have multiple illustrators, there is always a chance your art styles will clash. The easiest solution, of course, would be to feature a single artist in your project. In reality, however, other concerns come into play. Schedules, motivation, workloadthere are many factors to juggle. In The Last Birdling, I have opted for a relatively safe route. That is, to feature different artists for the backgrounds and characters. Since these elements are quite separate, it makes clashes less likely. Tooaya is The Last Birdlings artist, while Juliestorybored is our background illustrator. As the assets trickled in, we first put together a test to make sure the elements fit:
Lighting changes based on the time of day, so we must have all our bases covered:


Once the test is complete, we can proceed with production:

I prefer not to use language like my team or my artist. Once someone joins the team, we are in this together. When it was time to design Tayos village, Julia took the lead and did a great job:
The Last Birdling has been in production for two years. During that time, I often study other visual novels for inspiration. The Starcraft VN caught my interest back when it first released. I was particularly awestruck by the city nightscape that animated into place:
My previous project, Cursed Sight, featured backgrounds painted by the talented Tooaya. However, none of them animated during the game:


As I learn from other creators, I apply those lessons into future projects. In The Last Birdling, I have coded CGs and backgrounds that contain parallax animations, which work especially well for long distance shots:
Sometimes I am tempted to say my ideas are my own. If I ever claim that in the future, you can call me out for being a liar. I am a fan as much as anyone, so I will always be a student first. Thank you for reading :yoyo:!

Hi everyone! I started Persona 5 quite a few weeks ago, and before I even installed the game, I picked up Futabas wallpaper from the PSN Store to put myself in that mode. The Persona Mode, I guess. When both players and creators are in on the hype, that is when we have a great time. For instance, I cant wait for Umaru season two, so I want to retweet messages from the official account, I want to support them with a bluray purchase, that sort of thing. I hope to support The Last Birdling in any way I can, so today, I have put together some wallpapers and avatars for gamers to use:
If anyone decides to support me by using these assets, I am the one who is thankful, not the other way around. You are doing me a massive favor, and in the process, I hope it will help build excitement for that September 1st release. Gamers want flexibility these days. Maybe you want the logo in a different position, or perhaps gone altogether. Depending on where your icons are positioned, you may also prefer the character(s) to shift left or right. To cater for this, I have included separate elements in each wallpaper for you to adjust as needed:
These wallpapers are available in the highest available res. Even if you extracted those assets from the game, they will not be available at this size. Hopefully at least one of them will suit your tastes. All right, here is the pack: http://birdling.invertmouse.com/birdlings-media-pack.zip As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you!

Hi everyone! I started Persona 5 quite a few weeks ago, and before I even installed the game, I picked up Futaba’s wallpaper from the PSN Store to put myself in that mode. The Persona Mode, I guess. When both players and creators are in on the hype, that is when we have a great time. For instance, I can’t wait for Umaru season two, so I want to retweet messages from the official account, I want to support them with a bluray purchase, that sort of thing. I hope to support The Last Birdling in any way I can, so today, I have put together some wallpapers and avatars for gamers to use:
If anyone decides to support me by using these assets, I am the one who is thankful, not the other way around. You are doing me a massive favor, and in the process, I hope it will help build excitement for that September 1st release. Gamers want flexibility these days. Maybe you want the logo in a different position, or perhaps gone altogether. Depending on where your icons are positioned, you may also prefer the character(s) to shift left or right. To cater for this, I have included separate elements in each wallpaper for you to adjust as needed:
These wallpapers are available in the highest available res. Even if you extracted those assets from the game, they will not be available at this size. Hopefully at least one of them will suit your tastes. All right, here is the pack: http://birdling.invertmouse.com/birdlings-media-pack.zip As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Thank you!

As we know, The Last Birdling alternates between Bimonia and Tayo’s perspectives. Today, I would like to explore some of the details behind this system.
The Last Birdling is written from a first person perspective, so the viewpoint character’s personality will come through in everything she observes. Her inner thoughts, reactions, they are all distinctly her own. On paper, or on screen in our case, this means different word choices as well as sentence structures. That said, I despise making characters act a certain way just to showcase their uniqueness. If you study writing books, you will often be advised to make every character sound different, to a point where you can tell who is speaking even without dialogue tags. Now, imagine a group of your friends. If you closed your eyes, and they all had the same voice, would you be able to tell them apart? I for one would have a hard time. For me, being truthful takes priority above all rules. Since we are in a visual medium, we may as well take advantage of that when it comes to perspective shifts. Notice how the UI changes to green in the screenshot below:
This means we have switched to Tayo’s perspective in chapter two. The same concept applies to decision points:

In the world of traditional novels, shifting perspectives mid-scene is ill advised. To avoid disorienting readers, we want to jump into different heads during a scene or chapter break. The Last Birdling does not feature chapter titles, but there are end of scene cards to signal a perspective change:
This introduces several concerns in terms of programming. For instance, if players return to the previous scene, will the UI switch back as expected?
What about loading another saved game mid-session? I hope all the common scenarios have been addressed. We will see if players spot any edge cases after the game’s release. So why would we alternate between perspectives? Once readers recognize the pattern, it is no longer something they need to worry about, which makes for an ideal reading experience. If the view changes went as follows: Bimonia, Bimonia, Tayo, Tayo, Tayo, Tayo, Bimonia, Tayo, Bimonia, Bimonia And so on, gamers would stumble every time we reached a new scene. We want to set up roadblocks for our characters, not our players. To round things off, The Last Birdling follows the journeys of Bimonia and Tayo from childhood to adolescence. By the time these two reach their teens, they have suffered through an awful lot. To reflect both their physical and mental shifts, the UI will also update accordingly:
Find out more about The Last Birdling via: http://birdlng.invertmouse.com The website contains a demo version, which illustrates how the perspective changes work. Please feel free to have a look. Thank you for reading ːyoyoː!

Ever since Unhack 1, I have featured digital artbooks for my Steam releases, and The Last Birdling will be no different. I want to give you a preview today, and I also wish to detail some of the lessons I have learned through the past five years.
Above are several pages from Cursed Sight’s artbook. As you can see, the layout is similar to the artbook from Unhack. My websites also share the same template across projects. Unhack 2 and The Last Birdling feature a new template, while past projects use an older layout. I create both these websites and artbooks on my own, so I make use of templates to speed up development time.
My artbooks never feature story summaries. If you have taken the time to open these artbooks, I want to reward that effort with some new knowledge. Behind the scene processes, mistakes I have made, things along those lines.
I put Unhack 2’s artbook together during a trip, and I spent all of my hotel hours on those pages. Every time I read through the artbook, I would spot one new spelling mistake, or perhaps phrases that were awkward to read. Before you know it, a couple of days have already gone by. Even if all the assets are available, an artbook is not something we can cobble together a day before release. And now, here are some preview shots of The Last Birdling’s artbook:
As usual, there will be character art, CGs and background illustrations available. Every finalized artwork will come with a piece of commentary.
On top of that, just like with Unhack 2, I will include all the sketches used throughout the project:
I never used to include roughs, because I wanted to show these artworks at their best. Then one day, I read a review for one of my artbooks, and it complained about the lack of sketches. That made me realize how foolish I had been. When I am a fan of other games, I always want to see the drafts, so why would it be different for anyone else? I had failed to think from the players’ perspective, but thanks to that review, I was able to make the switch. As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/ Seven weeks to go! Thank you ːbibiː.

Hi everyone! The journey is over, and at last, I can announce The Last Birdling’s release date. Here it is:
September 1st, 2017! The Last Birdling’s Steam page can now be accessed: http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling Recently, I have started to follow upcoming games that I want to keep on my radar. If you are willing to do the same for The Last Birdling, I would be so grateful. The “follow” and “add to your wishlist” buttons are available on the Steam page. I will be active on the community board, so I hope to hang out with you there. As the release date approaches, I plan to post a new article every week. These articles will be available on the Steam page as well as my Facebook, Tumblr and all the other usual suspects. My social media links can be found here:
http://invertmouse.com I am thankful to those who messaged in to say they fell in love with Bimonia and Tayo after the demo. After hundreds of development hours, those two have grown lives of their own. Once the game is released, I hope their story can be shared with as many people as possible. Thank you!